|
The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Verison with an Introduction (Penguin Classics) | 
| Author: Anonymous
Creator: N. K. Sandars
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $9.95
Buy Used: $1.99
You Save: $7.96 (80%)
New (48) Used (237) Collectible (4) from $1.99
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 3169
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Pages: 128
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 0.4
ISBN: 014044100X
Dewey Decimal Number: 892.1
EAN: 9780140441000
ASIN: 014044100X
Publication Date: December 30, 1960
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Standard used condition.
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
This edition provides a prose rendering of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the cycle of poems preserved on clay tablets surviving from ancient Mesopotamia of the third mi llennium B.C. One of the best and most important pieces of epic poetry from human history, predating even Homer's Iliad by roughly 1,500 years, the Gilgamesh epic tells of the various adventures of that hero-king, including his quest for immortality, and an account of a great flood similar in many details to the Old Testament's story of Noah. The translator also provides an interesting and useful introduction explaining much about the historical context of the poem and the archeological discovery of th e tablets.
Product Description
Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu are the only heroes to have survived from the ancient literature of Babylon, immortalized in this epic poem that dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. Together they journey to the Spring of Youth, defeat the Bull of Heaven and slay the monster Humbaba. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's grief and fear of death are such that they lead him to undertake a quest for eternal life. A timeless tale of morality, tragedy and pure adventure, "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is a landmark literary exploration of man's search for immortality.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
A tale worthy of Homer.... December 12, 2008
Yoda (Hadera, Israel)
The introduction to this book consists, like all Penguin classics, of an essay by a prominent scholar in the field (and in this case the translator). It provides a very good introduction and background to the historical period as well as the epic itself. As the introduction is a bit dated (having been written orginally in 1960 and having been updated in 1967) it does not incorporate any scholarly advances made since then. Hence four stars out of five.
With respect to the translation itself, it is a narrative translation as opposed to a poetic (the way the tablets are acutally written). If one is interested in the poetic translation a much better book to read would be Stephne Mitchell's "Gilgamesh: A New English Version". The author's translation provides is a little rough in places and is not smooth in that there are one or two gaps in the story. For example, the narration on how Gilgamesh found/was given the flower of eternal life is very abrupt and is almost missing. Hence the translation is worthy of four as opposed to five stars. The story, despite this minor problem, is very touching.
 Eye Opening Epic March 11, 2008
Richard B. Vaughan (Potato Country)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It will be obvious that plagerism is not a recent phenomenon. When you are aware of Gilgamesh, the supposed wise sages of books like the Torah, Bible, what ever the Arabs call their drivel, you will realize that you have been duped as the authors of those works merely ripped-off the Greeks, Egyptians and other cultures that pre-dated them. I, for one, have no wish to perpetuate the supposed divinity of Middle-Eastern religions. I never quite got the vengeful God only to later take anger management classes and become a loving God thing! There is definitely something more to the Universe than random chance, but Mankind does not yet have a handle on that knowledge, certainly not the rediculous, violent, crimes against Humanity, Middle East.
Great epic poem December 21, 2007
Darren A. Allicock (New York, N.Y.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Gilgamesh is a great epic poem, particularly for me as a "theology hobbyist" it is pretty interesting to understand how other semitic cultures lived in the days before and after Noah, befor Abraham. It's also thought provoking in respect to how much it relates to various biblical accounts. The author does discuss this briefly in the introduction. Essentially, it has expanded my horizons...
The tale of the evolution of storytelling that reveals shared mythology in religions October 18, 2007
OverTheMoon (overthemoonreview@hotmail.com)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This version is a very popular adaptation of the Gilgamesh story because it contains N. K. Sandars' crucial introduction which is just as important as the translation itself because it includes information about the discovery of the tablets in Assyria dating back to the third millennium BC and then goes on to explain the difficulties that scholars have had in rediscovering the story from these artifacts and how during this long laborious translation process found themselves actively engaged in evolving the story, and thus the mythology, which had developed from other sources and had certainly influenced ancient hero epics that proceeded it. There is no one version of Gilgamesh. There are very many. Having a good introduction like this makes reading the story even better because we understand its significance beyond being just a very old fable.
The story of the translation of the epic of Gilgamesh is every bit as important as the epic itself and maybe more so because of its relevance to modern questions about the authenticity of the accounts held by popular traditional sacred texts. It is impossible to ignore the resemblance the epic of Gilgamesh has to Greek mythology as well as to the Judeo-Christian Islamic religions. Elements of the story such as Gilgamesh being part god part man, the flood story which is vertically identical to the one in Genesis and the underlying quest for immortality will peak interest and is probably the main reason why most people want to read the epic of Gilgamesh. The discovery of the tablets only increased popular scholarly opinions that religions have their roots in mythology and here is yet more evidence to back that position. Thus the epic of Gilgamesh and the story behind it is an essential classical text for ancient storytelling and how they evolve with time through the civilizations that come in contact with them. The Epic is not just Gilgamesh but the gradual progression of important themes in life that humans deal with by developing these legends and fables.
Sandar's work also contains an important treatment of the story and an explanation of the role of the gods which are essentials to understanding what the story is about. Gilgamesh is hard to read without these initiations because the era and the setting in which the story was written must be dealt with or else the plot which contains abundant and rapid interactions between the gods, their attributes and the consequences, will not make any sense to the reader. The ancient ways, and we are talking ancient going back some 5000 years at least, are not our ways. Here gods are superabundant and are responsible for every aspect of life and with an outcome, such as the setting of the sun by scorpions, there is also a god who is bringing the fiery ball down into the underworld where two more gods are there to catch it and who influence our lives somehow.
Gilgamesh is another world, almost alien, giving us a glimpse into how our ancestor's explained themselves and the world they found themselves in. It goes to show how far our modern understanding of why we are the way we are and why things are the way they are, has gone.
 It was horrible. August 7, 2007
J. Krinker
2 out of 26 found this review helpful
I had to read it for a summer reading book. It was horrible. I mean, who wants to read all about the Ancient Sumarians?
|
|
|
|
powered by full speed | |
